New York Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged Tuesday to march in the city’s Puerto Rican Day parade June 11 that will honor a terrorist leader.

“I believe this parade is a very, very important part of the life of our city,” de Blasio told reporters at a press conference in the Bronx.

According to the New York Post, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito came up with the idea to honor Oscar Lopez Rivera, a leader of the Puerto Rican terrorist organization known as the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN).

New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill declared he would not march.

“I cannot support a man who was a co-founder of an organization that engaged in over 120 bombings, six people killed, and seriously injured four police officers,” O’Neill said.